Shakarian Autumn AU's
by PrincessMidna90
Summary: Found a "Autumn Au's" list on tumblr, and thought I'd give them all a try! Done: Scarf, Leaves, Decorate... To do: Smile, Pumpkin, Zombie.
1. Scarf

The turian looks lost. Jane's barely seen any turians before in her life, but none of them had looked like this one.

He doesn't look around like knows where he is, nor how he should react to the red and gold trees starting to get covered in white.

She wonders if they have winters and snow on the planet he comes from, though even if they do, there's no guarantee he's been born on that planet (she doesn't know the name of it, but maybe she'll ask someone).

She knows that, like humans, aliens don't just stick to their own home planets. Some leave and never return, others leave for a while but long to be back to what will always be their home planet.

And because he looks lost, she decides to give him her scarf. Well, not the one she was wearing, but the one she'd found in her closet when she'd moved. The one that had belonged to Kaidan.

Kaidan, who'd loved her but left her to travel space. Kaidan, who'd died serving the Alliance and left her alone back on Earth.

Jane doesn't think she'll ever be over him, but she's learnt not to dwell on the past; learnt that thinking about the Major won't bring him back.

He'd only been a Staff Lieutenant when she last saw him alive, but he'd been posthumously awarded the rank of Major for his "brave sacrifice" or something like that.

When she'd found the scarf her had felt like it was being ripped from her chest, and she'd spent a while holding it close to her face, the last remnants of his smell upon the scarf.

She hadn't cried, but it had hurt like a bitch to be reminded of him in such a way.

But now, days later, she had cleaned the scarf and it smelled nothing like him anymore.

And Jane had finally decided to get rid of it by giving it away to someone who didn't know the story of the scarf or how its owner had died.

To someone who needed it.

There are gangs on the street, running around trying to earn something, anything, to have something to eat and something to wear. Jane knows this, she's seen them, has helped them before.

Had planned to give the scarf away to the first kid she saw who'd need it.

But there is something about the turian standing alone that makes her heart ache for him, and she knows she's found the new owner of the scarf.

"Here," she says, holding it out to him with a smile.

He doesn't say anything, doesn't move. He just looks at her.

"It's a scarf," Jane explains. "You wrap it around your neck to keep warm. Here, let me show you."

She steps up to him without waiting for permission and wraps it around his neck, tying it at the front to keep it closed.

"See. Isn't that better?" She steps back to look at him and feels surprised at how well it fits him. It's just a scarf, but the shade of blue and the silver details matches him so perfectly.

Jane feels unease at the way her heart skips a beat at the sight of him.

The turian's expression looks the same still, but there's something comically strange about seeing him with the scarf on.

Maybe it's because this is the first time she's seen anyone who's not human with a scarf on, or maybe it's because the lower part of his face is covered up, so he reminds her of a small child wrapped up a bit too tight.

Before she knows it, she's laughing at the sight in front of her. The turian looks so grumpy that she can't help it, even though laughing comes as a shock to her because she can't remember the last time she did it.

She's having trouble breathing from laughing so hard, but she just can't stop now that she's started.

Her sides hurt and she clutches them as she doubled over.

Then a hand touches her shoulder and she stops instantly, sinking to her knees at the cold, snowy ground.

Jane looks at him through tears she didn't realise she'd shed until now. She notices he's holding out his hand, so she takes it, accepting his help to get up. Normally she wouldn't accept anyone's help, not even Kaidan's, but there's something about this stranger, still wearing the scarf wrapped too tightly around his lower face.

She sees concern in his eyes, but not pity. It throws her off stride enough that she forgets she's still holding his hand until he speaks.

"Garrus Vakarian." His voice is muted, but Jane can still hear that his voice is gravelly.

"Jane Shepard," she replies through fading tears. She hates how her voice sounds, hates how apparent it is she's cried.

It makes her feel weak, something she's always considered herself to be anything but.

She moves her hand to wipe away the tears, and finds she still holds his hand.

Even so, she doesn't let go, feels that she doesn't want to. There's comfort in contact, and it's something she's unknowingly denied herself for so long, scared to repeat what had happened with Kaidan.

Jane is surprised at that, but even more so at the fact that Garrus doesn't let go either. He seems confused about the fact as well, as though he can't believe he's still in front of her and still wearing the scarf, or that he'd even touched her and offered her assistance in the first place.

"So, Garrus, ever had a coffee?" She asks, not because the silence is uncomfortable or she needs to speak, but because she wants to get to know him.

She's never spoken to a turian before, but that's not why she wants to talk to Garrus. No, Jane wants to get to know him because she can sense there's something about him, and because he's been out there, knows the galaxy in a way she doesn't.

But she wants to learn about everything out there, and everything about this silent turian in front of her. She wants to ask him to take her with him when he's going to leave because she's ready to move on with her life, ready to see the sights and travel in ways she's never done before.

She doesn't see the smile through the scarf, but she can hear it in his voice when he answers her.

"Not yet. But I will for you."


	2. Leaves

Garrus Vakarian has only lived on Earth for three months, but he already knows there are thing humans do that he will never understand, no matter how well it's explained to him or how much he tries.

In fact, he's looking at one such thing right now.

It's an afternoon in October; the sun is on its way down, colouring the landscape in a warm, golden light.

The leaves on the trees are red, yellow and orange, though most have blown off due to the storm two days ago.

Autumn storms are not unusual, nor is the fact that some of his neighbours are out raking up the leaves to gather into manageable piles.

No, the unusual thing is what his closest neighbour is doing. She's only raked up part of the leaves, and she's currently looking around as if she wonders if someone is watching her.

Garrus doesn't think she can see him, but he moves away from the window just to be sure. Had he still been a C-Sec agent, he'd be ready to make a move, because it seems suspicious, the way she acts.

He doesn't know why, but even so, it doesn't seem like she's up to something bad.

Maybe he's getting old and complacent, living in this peaceful neighbourhood…

Then she jumps. His neighbour jumps straight into the pile of leaves, a look of pure glee and delight on her face.

Garrus stares as he moves closer to the window without being aware of the fact that he does.

He tries to tell himself he's not staring, even though he knows he is.

Humans are just so strange!

When he'd lived on the Citadel he hadn't spent much time around the humans, so he didn't know if this whole deal with jumping into piles of leaves were a human thing in general, or a humans-living-on-Earth thing or if it was something only the really strange ones did.

He continues to look (not staring) as she repeats the raking and jumping again.

She didn't look around before jumping this time, so he's got a better view of her face and expression.

She looks beautiful, and Garrus finds himself surprised to think so; he's never felt any interest for members of other species before.

Before he knows what he's doing, he's opening his window.

Garrus wants to hear her laugh, but fears she'll see him and stop if he goes outside.

But then it seems as if the spell is broken.

She either sees or hears him open the window, so she straightens up and puts on a mask he doesn't like.

It makes her look serious, unapproachable, not like she was seconds ago.

She looks towards the window, and Garrus is sure that their eyes lock for a moment, before she picks up her rake and goes inside.

Garrus hopes he'll see her the next day, but several days go by before he does.

While waiting for the chance to see and speak to her, he's done some digging. He knows her name is Jane Shepard, and that's she's unmarried, but the other neighbours doesn't know anything else about her.

She keeps to herself, doesn't have any visitors, and had moved to the neighbourhood that spring.

Had they tried to get to know her? Yes, they had, but she hadn't wanted to talk to them, so they gave up.

It's the sunlight glinting off her red hair that catches his eye. She's the only one he's seen with hair that shade of red, and although he already thought her beautiful, there's something about it with the late autumn sun shining on it.

Garrus doesn't know anything about her, but the colour makes her look fierce, and it matches her.

He can envision her being in command, charging through a battlefield, her red hair like a torch shining through the darkness.

And then he sees her N7 hoodie and understands.

Understands why she's alone, why she doesn't try to make friends with her neighbours, why she closed her moment of happiness behind an unfeeling, unrevealing mask.

She's like him. A solider closed off from others who have been through what she's been through.

So Garrus vows to change that, to let her see that she's not alone in this world.

He ends up buying her a small hedgehog figurine because he did some research and found out that they hide in piles of leaves.

It was perfect, so of course he bought a matching one for himself to have a reminder of the day he first noticed a human.

It still takes Garrus a couple more days to muster his courage. It makes him feel uneasy, because he shouldn't be afraid after everything he's been through. But this human, this woman, seems special.

He knows it's not like she needs him to save her or anything – her N7 hoodie marks her as something special, and had they fought together, she would most likely have ended up saving him more than the other way around.

But he wants to get to know her, at least in that we-live-next-door-to-one-another way, if not friends.

Garrus thinks he'd like to be her friend, if she would only be willing to open up to him, even a little bit.

And Garrus also knows that it will take time, after all, how could he not? They seem to be kindred spirits, and sometimes that's all it takes.

She wears her mask when she opens her door, but seems surprised someone bothered showing up at her door.

"Garrus Vakarian," he says and holds out his hand, hoping she'll accept it.

Garrus briefly thinks that had this been a book, it would state that 'the air seems heavy between them'. It's not, but it still feels like an apt description.

"Jane Shepard." She sounds older than she looks, sounds experienced. But her voice fits her, just like her hair.

"I…" Garrus stops, unsure as to how he's to proceed.

So he holds out the gift, stands there with it in his hand, waiting for her to accept it, hoping she will.

"I saw you the other day. Back in your garden, and when I saw this I thought of you."

Jane arches an eyebrow, but doesn't say anything. Garrus wonders how many have cowered under that gaze and how many have survived the silent scolding that seems to pour out of her.

"Ah, shit, that sounded wrong. Working in S-Sec didn't exactly offer many chances at normal interactions with humans. Just take it, please. Sorry to have bothered you."

He puts the clumsily wrapped package (hey, it's not easy when you only have three fingers on one hand and no experience in human customs) down on her front porch and walks away.

Just as he's about to cross over on to his own lawn, Jane calls out to him.

"Hey Vakarian! Thanks for the gift." He turns to her, sees her standing there with the figurine in hand and the smile she wears is the most brilliant thing he's ever seen.

He vows to make it appear again.

Garrus never understood the deal with humans and their need to have small decorative objects everywhere, but maybe the hedgehog will be his first clue to finding out.


	3. Decorate

'me and my roommate decided to decorate our house for halloween but got really into it, and ended up re-enacting several scenes from nightmare on elm street so loud the neighbours called the police to investigate screams' au

(Writer's note: I haven't seen any version of A Nightmare on Elm Street, so I swapped it with Alien)

This takes place two years after Scarf

Jane had found the soundtracks from the Alien movies when they had been out shopping the day before, so she puts it on when they start decorating the apartment.

A carved out pumpkin sits in the window sill, the gaping maw of an alien turned out towards the street.

Her roommate and boyfriend, Garrus, is a turian originally from Palaven, and so he's unaccustomed to Earth traditions and Halloween. He's only been on Earth for two years, and she'd met him on one of the first days after he'd arrived.

Garrus still has the scarf she gave him back then, and the memory makes her smile.

"What are you smiling about?" Garrus asks her, and she figures it might seem odd to him that she smiles as she stands there with a bloodied, severed latex arm she's about to hang up.

"Scarf," she says, and he instantly understands; it's a thing between them that no one else knows about.

"Good. I was worried you smiled about that creature emerging from an egg and jumping onto people."

For Garrus, naming the ancient films still seems odd; to her, he is an alien, and so is she to him. The aliens in the movies are vastly different of course, but Garrus is so used to calling all non-turian species for aliens, that he feels like calling creatures of fiction for something existing races are named it just, well, wrong.

Jane still swears to herself she'll make him call the movies by their names someday, and even teach him the _correct_ names – because there is a _difference_ between Alien, Aliens, Alien 3 and Alien Resurrection.

"You mean the Aliens, Garrus."

"The Xenomorphs, yes. I did some research, and they seem a bit like the rachni the krogan fight; only the rachni won't jump on your face and then use your body as a host. Then again, they got a lot worse after the Reapers merged with them and made them biomechanical."

She's heard of the rachni, and counts herself lucky she's never run into any. Jane isn't afraid of spiders – in fact she's decorating with quite a lot of them in fake cobwebs around the apartment – but she is really glad they're mostly extinct.

"Yeah, I heard about them from Grunt and Wrex. They've both told me about some of their fights with them, and even though I'm pretty sure Wrex tries to make them sound bigger and tougher than they actually are, I'm glad they've never been in this system."

Garrus nods in agreement and walks into their bedroom for a moment. When he comes back, he's carrying a small cardboard box and tells her to close her eyes and hold out her hands.

Moments later, something is placed in her hands, something she can't identify by touch alone, so when Garrus permits her to open her eyes, she almost squeals in delight.

He's gotten her a facehugger plush, and Jane thinks that apart from accepting the scarf and his first cup of coffee (and moving in with her), this is the best gift Garrus has ever gotten her.

Her smile is so huge it almost hurts, and she can see the happiness in Garrus' eyes at her pleasure at the gift. He smiles back at her, and so she leans in to him, making him think she's going to kiss him.

But as soon as his eyes are closed, she smacks the facehugger onto his face and laughs a loud, delighted laugh of glee and mischief. If Garrus' view hadn't been obstructed, he would have seen the look on her face and the way her eyes sparkles and he would have fallen in love with her all over again, just as he did when they met and he heard her laugh for the first time.

It's something he'll never tire off, and he's vowed to himself that he'll spend every moment with her making her happy and making her laugh; not only because she deserves it, but because without the sound of her laugh brightening his world, he would feel like a man in the dark, starving for light.

"Let's see how well you remember, Garrus!" comes her excited voice from next to him. "Let's re-enact scenes from the first movie; I'll be the Alien! Here, take Ser Pounce-A-Lot, you can let him be Jones the cat!" She throws a plush cat to him and picks up the facehugger from where Garrus dropped it.

They run around for what seems like only seconds, all thoughts of decorating gone, and with no care for the screams they make and what the neighbours will hear.

Turns out Jane makes more convincing screams, so they switch roles after a while. Garrus doesn't want to switch at first, telling Jane in a low growl that he enjoys having her chase him.

"Oh come on, Garrus. You know I'm willing to do that any day. But I figured it would be more realistic to have you chase me around, seeing as you resemble the Aliens more than I do."

"You'll pay for that, Shepard. Just you wait."

Garrus chases her around the apartment, because even though he's fast, she can jump over the furniture and avoid him that way. She screams as she runs and jumps, but the screams turns to squeals and then to other sounds as Garrus catches her and they fall down on the couch together.

Which is when the police barges in.

Apparently their screams have been a bit too convincing, and so the neighbours called the cops, as they were too worried and frightened to check what was going on themselves.

Neither of them knows what to do or how to react, and so they both start laughing, as everything about the situation just seems so strange and embarrassing.

They're lucky, and get only a warning from the police – "Don't do it again!"

As soon as the police are gone, Shepard turns back to Garrus, mischief and love in her eyes.

"So, how about that payback, Vakarian?"


End file.
